The King of Swans
by Cuinawen
Summary: Fifth in my 'The 12 Vamps of Christmas' series... After releasing the virus, Hannibal and Abigail find an unexpected asset to their team... someone that Hannibal has taken a liking to. Rated M mainly for language. One Shot.


_**The King of Swans  
>(The 12 Vamps of Christmas Day 5)<strong>_

A crazy challenge I set myself to produce 12 different Bella/vampire one shots or story snippets for the 12 days leading up to Christmas.

(Even more crazy when you know that I only decided to do this 6 days before I posted the first story!)

The general aim is that for 12 days leading up to Christmas I will be posting 12 different one shots/snippets, each with Bella and a different vamp (though I've stretched that just a little).

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><p>Hannibal King shifted from where he was slumped uncomfortably on the stairs. Sparing only a brief disgusted glance at the rapidly disintegrating body of his <em>delightful<em> ex, Danica, he lurched to his feet and paused for a moment to catch his balance.

Scrambling up the stairs he tossed one last sarcastic comment over his shoulder as he left her there to burn into nothing.

"Hang in there, kitten. I'll get help."

Being a vampire toy again for the day had really done a number on him, but he shrugged it off with some difficulty. He had to find Abigail and little Zoe, and get the hell out of this shithole before the Feds showed up.

As much as he hated to admit it, he was relieved when Abigail reached him and joined in the search. Zoe had been freed earlier by Abigail, but hadn't left the building like Abi had said to.

Finally spotting Zoe near what could only be described as a couple of cells, Hannibal sagged in relief when they were greeted with a childish squeal as Zoe got up ran toward them from where she'd been sitting outside a locked door.

Scooping the little girl up, Hannibal turned to leave but paused when Zoe patted his arm to get his attention and pointed at one of the doors.

"You need to help her."

"They holding someone else?" Hannibal asked. "Shit."

Putting Zoe down and reassuring her, he moved toward the door with Abigail. Exchanging a look, they kicked in unison, breaking the lock and slamming the door open.

"No, no, no, no."

The terrified mumbling coming from inside the room tugged at something in him and he edged past Abigail and headed into the room, crouching down painfully next to the frightened young woman.

"Hey," He had murmured gently, for once toning himself down, "We're here to help. You wanna get out of here?"

~*~ _A few months later… _~*~

Groaning deeply as he landed heavily on his back, Hannibal quickly pulled another gun from his underarm holster and shot. The sundog exploded, doing its job and making the vampire disappear in a cloud of fiery ash.

Coughing as he inhaled some of the floating debris, Hannibal sat up, mentally thanking Bella for insisting he carry the extra concealed weapon.

_Who_ _knew_? The little brunette knockout he'd found locked up that day had turned out to be a certified weapons genius.

She was still nervous and jumpy as hell, not that he blamed her when he knew all too well what being a vampire plaything was like, but she'd quickly fit right in with them. She even got along with Abi, which not many people ever did.

Then she'd ventured into the lab in their new set up and hadn't looked back since. Not that they'd needed her to do that much these days. The virus they'd released directly into Drake had been doing its job, slowly but surely spreading through the vampire population and wiping most of them out.

There had been a few who were immune of course – anomalies in a species were a common thing. That was what they had been doing tonight, taking out a small group of virus survivors.

"Alright there?" Abi smirked, holding a hand out to help him to his feet.

Her eyes shone with amusement that one of the vampires had managed to get the jump on him.

"Yeah, yeah," He grumbled, ignoring her hand and getting painfully to his feet, "Laugh it up kitten."

Abigail scowled at the pet name and turned to walk away.

"So, are you going to tell Bella you got hurt or should I? Maybe if you're lucky she'll kiss it better for you." She tossed over her shoulder with a smirk.

"And what's that shit supposed to mean?"

"Ha," Abigail snorted as he predictably hurried to follow her, "You know exactly what it means, hot stuff… or did you actually think we don't all notice you eye fucking her? Christ, King, the only one who doesn't notice _is her_."

Hannibal sighed explosively but didn't deny her words, there wasn't much point. One look at those deep brown eyes of hers, and Bella had totally owned his ass. Add in her sense of humour and her hot little body and she quickly owned the rest of him too. Not that he'd ever said anything to her about it…

At first it was because she needed time to get over being used as a vampire juice box, something he knew about first hand… that and her ex, who was some kind of fucked up vampire off-breed.

Then… well, he didn't really know why he still hadn't made a move. She was so unlike the raging nutjob bettys he'd hooked up with in the past. She was smart and funny, and actually had a heart…

Plus there was the niggling knowledge that Abigail almost certainly liked Bella better than him, and if he screwed up she would almost certainly kill him. Painfully.

As if she knew where his thoughts were going Abi looked over her shoulder at him and grinned knowingly.

Grimacing, he raised his middle finger in a mock salute, but followed her anyway. She had the car keys.

Bella was in the lab just like she usually was when they returned. She poked her head out like she always did, smiling when she saw they were okay, then blushing faintly as Hannibal caught her looking him over.

Abigail shook her head in amusement. These two really needed to get their act together, life was too short and far too dangerous to mess around like they were.

"Hey, Bella," She called suddenly, hiding a grin, "Check his back out will ya, he took a nasty bump back there."

"I… yeah, okay." Bella stuttered as Hannibal glared furiously at Abigail.

She swallowed nervously as she walked back into her lab, as the unofficial medic she was getting pretty used to looking after injuries by now, but going anywhere near Hannibal always made her feel unnerved.

She still spared a smile at little Zoe though, who was cleaning up her drawing materials before she left to go and see Abigail.

"I don't know what Abi is talking about… I'm fine…" He protested once they were alone, leaning casually against one of the work benches. He looked down curiously as his elbow bumped into the handle of an odd looking blade.

"Huh… what's this you're going all Jekyll and Hyde on?"

Bella looked down, her cheeks flushing. "It's just a test piece I'm trying, I don't even know if it will work on them…"

Hannibal looked at her in confusion for a moment before his face cleared. "Ahh, I get it. It's for the Cold Ones right?"

Bella shrugged still not looking at him.

"Fuck Bella, you're not still worried about pushing us into this are you? You gotta know we're going for them next, right?" He continued, "They're just as much blood-sucking dick jockeys as the kind we've already been taking out… _Anything_ you can do to make it into shits and giggles is more than fine by me."

Pushing away from the bench he made to leave the room, but Bella put her hand out to stop him.

"Hannibal King… did you really think I wasn't going to catch you trying to escape there? Now, stop being a pussy and let me check you out."

Hannibal froze where he was and gaped at Bella, who after realising what she'd just said was staring at the floor, her cheeks flaming.

"Check me out, huh toots?" He grinned, turning his back to her and lifting up his shirt.

"Oh shut up, ass," she muttered, then gasped as she saw the damage, "Shit, Han!"

She tried futilely tugging his shirt up higher to better see the mess of bluish purple already starting to appear on his upper back, then gave up.

"Just take it off will you." She hummed distractedly, rummaging in her first aid box for the home made bruise salve she knew she had stashed in there.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever it takes to get me naked." He grumbled, pulling his shirt over his head and groaning slightly as it scraped over the rapidly forming bruising.

Bella ignored him, her cheeks still blazing as she pushed him to sit on a stool and stood behind him. Swallowing down her desire and embarrassment, she carefully felt over his back, gently rubbing the salve in as she went.

"There," She breathed a little unsteadily when she'd finished, "Nothing broken, and the bruising should heal faster now…"

Dealing with her own nerves, Bella hadn't noticed Hannibal's increasingly ragged breaths as her hands had worked him over, so when he'd spun at the sound of her voice it had taken her by surprise.

She looked down at where her hand now rested on his chest; he'd turned before she'd had a chance to pull it away, and blushed, her heart pounding. It wasn't the first time she'd seen him shirtless, but this was different.

Feeling uncertain, she went to take a step back, but suddenly his warm hand covered hers, preventing her from moving away. Then he was standing up, close enough that she had to tilt her head back in order to meet his eyes.

"Han?" Bella questioned tentatively.

He was unusually silent as he looked down at her for a long moment, then he shrugged, a faint grin crossing his face.

"Ah… screw it."

Before Bella could question what he meant, his hands moved, gripping her waist and pulling her against him. He tilted his head down toward her ear, his trimmed beard scratching lightly over her cheek and making her shiver.

"Tell me that I'm not way out of line here… that I've read this right."

Bella opened her mouth but couldn't form more than a low squeak in reply. _Oh well…_ she thought hazily, _actions speak louder than words._

Cupping his face in her hands, she tugged him down and lightly pressed her lips to his. He stiffened momentarily and Bella panicked, but then he moved.

Hand in her hair, he kissed her deeply, tongue tangling with hers. While in true Hannibal form, his other hand made its way to her ass, squeezing it and making Bella giggle softly against his lips.

Abigail walked back past the lab, glancing through the open door and snorting in amusement as she caught sight of Hannibal and Bella attached at the lips, while he got handsy with her.

"Ha… finally!" She commented loudly, smothering a laugh when they pulled apart just for Hannibal to raise his hand and offer another one finger salute.

"So, kids… do we need to have a little talk about public areas?"

"Fuck off, Abi." Hannibal told her as she sauntered away, still snickering.

Mood well and truly killed, if only temporarily, Hannibal glanced down at Bella, taking in her bright eyes and flushed cheeks with a slight grin.

"Now…" He reached out and took her hand, tugging her to lean against the workbench next to him, then wrapped his arm round her shoulders.

"Let's talk about killing Cold Ones…"

~*~ _fin _~*~

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><p><em>Unbeta'd so any mistakes are mine.<em>

_Oddly this was the first of these one shots that I actually finished, and I'm not sure why I decided to save him for now… he was fun to write though._


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